Method op fuel feeding and combustion control



JOSEPH MOSES WARD KITCHEN, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW ERSEY;

METHOD FUEL FEEDING AND COMBUSTION CONTROL;

. 1,331,774. in Drawing.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, JOSEPH MOSES WARD KITCH N, a citizen of the United States, re-

siding in the city of East Orange, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, have invented new Methods of Fuel Feeding and Combustion Control, of'which the following is a specification. w

The present invention is an advance'on the ideas described in my Patents Nos. 1,094,390, and 1,127,77 7; and has for one of the objects the utilization of Cinders or coke;

and fine fuel dusts that have usually been thrown away. Another object is to secure temporarily a decrease in and later, an automatic increase .in the rate of combustion in house heating and power producing plants, and to avoid burning fuel that has been fed vto a furnace when such burning is not needed, as well as to avoid burning fuel under a strong, rapid draft, which is usually a wasteful draft, at certain hours when increased heat transmission is desired quickly.

It is an old practice to"bank fires with ashes or earth which clog the fuel mass, during those hours when the production of heat by the burning of fuel is not desired. It is also an old practice to reclaim cinders, and burn them 'as an economical procedure, either Wet or dry. The economy of that procedure is frequently problematical, involving as it-does, dust production in'the process of reclamation; and also, because cinders have little or no easily volatizable burnable constituents; and hence, are not so readily consumed as those fuels which contain a larger amount of the more volatile matters.

In the usual methods of burning coal in household heating devices, at or prior to bed-time, a very considerable amount of fuel isfed into the heating device to keep the fire going until the time of arising from bed in the, morning, provision usually being made in the construction ofthe heating device to contain a sufliciently thickbed of fuel to maintain active combustion through the night. The result is, that a very considerable amount of carbon monoxid gas and other gaseous matters, through reaction are evolved in, ordriven off from the upper layers of the fuel mass by the-heat of com bustion going onin the lower layers of fuel. Probably every household furnace-attendant has noticed the escape of furnace gas from the heatingdevice or its smoke flue, immediately after a fresh feeding of coal fuel.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Application filed March 11, 1918. Serial No. 221,808.

7 otherwise.

Patented Feb. 24, 1920.

These gases usually escape into the chimney more or less unconsumed, which loss would not occur if the fuel-gas were more frequently or more continuously fed and maintained at a thinner depth. The ordinary method of banking fires with wet or dry ashes, has the disadvantage of clogging the fuel mass with ashes preventing combustion of the fuel si' rrounding the interstices clogged by the ashes, that must be removed 7 downwardly through the fuel-mass at the cost of labor and a delay in heating effect when a quick increase in and transmission of heat is desired. 7 Also that old practice excludes the possibility ofhaving through antomatic action occurring in the fuel mass, in place and already in a satisfactory glowing state of combustion and radiating intense heat effectively, a'full supply of still burnable fuel not clogged with an admixture of ashes, in the early morning hours when heat .111 the household as a matter of physical comfortis very desirable.

I overcome old-time defective practice in this 'connection,.by the simple method of blanketing or banking the top of the fuelmass, when a diminution of the rate of combustion is required, with an ash-free fuel of finer articles'than the fuel that comprises the major part of the fuel-mass. It is customary to use fuel having asize 'as to its particles that will presumably allow for a desirableproportion of air for combustion passing through the fuel-mass; and by various methods of stoking, to free the ignited and partly-burned particles of fuel from the ashes of combustion by grate shaking, or

In my method,

tion without changing the draft controlling structures of the heating device, by then spreading a layer of unburned fuel of such small size as to its particles as will largely close up the air apertures between the larger fuel particles at the upper. level of the fuelmass, in a blanketcoat of moderate though in providing for the overnight treatment of the fuel-mass, instead of suflicient thickness, of the finer-sized fuel to Theselected thickness of theblanket-coat is 1 proportionate to the time of 'ClGSlI'GflIGClIlC- 7 tion in the rate of combustion. This procedure produces the immediate effect "of largely preventing the passage of air -up-' wardly'tln'eugh the fuel-mass, or of air passing downwardly between the ignited fuel particles from the combustion space above the fuel-mass. But the heat in the ignited fuel graduallyjheats the bl'anketin'g fine fuel coat and drives off its volatile constituents; and "thus automatically, gradually renders the blanketing coat more porous and passable for air for combustion; The 'resultjof this practice is that while a very considerable amount of fuel is notburned duringthe sleeping hours of the "household, during those hours the upperpart of the fuel mass gradually attains an eifec'tive conditionv of active ihea't radiation; the volatile-matters having fbeendriven oii' slowly and mostly burned, while the coked residue is in a condition for securing its entire combustion in site immediately at the upper level of "the fuel-mass, without having a considerably large amount of its gaseous'burnableconstituents conveyed into -the chimneyin the "form of unburned carbon-monoxid and other gases' ,T his conditionof effective heat radiation is automatically secured for the {early hours of the day when the comfort of the members of the ihome is dependent ona warmhouse atmosphere. This secured effect also avoids the necessity of feeding at 1 one time avlarge'amountof fuel inithe early day and then forcing the draft "to increase the rate of combustion in order to get heat in the house as soon as possible, and under which management it takes considerable 1 time to get the newly fed fuel into an effective condition of combustion, and in which there is a large loss ogf transmission efficiency through air dilution by the enforced draft with consequent reduction in 'the temperature of'the heating ga'ses, as well as decrease in the "temperature at which-ignition occurs. Also, the-heating gases being drawn over the heating surfaces very quickly, and being of a relatively low temperature, there is a lessened transmission of the heat that is generated .in the combustion chamber offthe heating device. It will be understood that in carrying out my process I continue the introduction of Iaprope'r amount of air for combustion to secure the burning of any evolved combustible j gases both through and above the fuel mass, jyet avoid introducing sufficient air to act in unduly cooling the burning gases. V V

7 I estimate that the saving in fuel consumption through the practice of this method alone, willbe nearly one-fifth of the fuel costs of ordinary household heating.

More than one-half of the hull; of ashes resulting from the use of anthracite fuel in adhere to the moistened coke, makes an excellent low-cost blanketing material to use for my purpose. It will be noted that wetting the porous coked particles, temporarily closes the air passages ofthose' particles and thus prevents the passage of air forcombus- 'tion throughthe coked fuel particles; But as the underlying heat drives off the moisture the (ll-aft is automatically re-established "through them, and-the fine adherent dust attached to the coked fuel is volatilized;

after which a glowing fuel bed surface will have been developed automatically, very effectlve 1n its power to radiate heat;

This method used with effective methods forthe diffused introduction of air for combustion over "the fuel mass, and preferably introduced at'a point close to the point of exit for the gases of combustion from the combustion chamber, as indicated in patents issued to me, directly and indirectly will cutth'e fuel costs of heating fully 35 per cent. in ordinary house-heating, and through "the use of the heating devices generally in use.

It will be noted that instead of my decreasing :the rate of combustion by choking "the air spaces 'inthe fuel mass with ashes, I substitute a temporary "banking and a succ'eeding slowing of the rate of combustion, but maintain a rate that automatically progressively increases "in rapidity, and without change in theposition ojfthe dralft structures of the heating device. In this WayI secure an economical burning of fuel and abetter transmission into the house, of the developed heat. There is no economy incooling off a dwelling-house at night, so far as fuel conservation aloneis 'concerned, if a wasteful rateo'f combustion in the early hours of "the (day; must "be practised to quickly again heat 'up'the house 'inthose hours. He1'1ce'will be seen the value of anintermittent lessened "throughinfreguent fuel feedings, there is a continually decreasing rate of combustion and an undesirable too greatly consumed condition o'fjthe fuel-mass for nearly half of each twenty-four hours. But with my method there is automatically efi'ectuated a progressive increasing rate of combustion and a Satisfactory state of the fuel-mass at the time of day when that condition is practicularly desirable. The differentiation of my process from the old procedure of banking the fire is further elucidated in the following claims.

The invention herein vclaimed is based on that will allow a progressively increasing a above the fu v that secures a very positive transmission of flow of gases through the blanketing coat; and if the draft regulation from below up ward through the fuel mass is not cut off,

and if there is a maintained diffused introduction of a roper amount of air over and el mass to secure a substantially complete combustion of the unburned gases rising from the fuel mass and its blanketing coat; the following hitherto unrecognized phenomena will occur:

1st. At the usual morning hour of rising from bed of the members of the household, the upper surface of the fuel mass in the furnace will be in a brilliant state of smokeless incandescence and active heat radlation the heat generated from the fuel, through the heating surfaces of the heater.

2nd. That the room temperature of the house will have been automatically effectively maintained and increased to a comfortable degree. 7

3rd. That the usual extent of burning of the fuel mass has not occurred, and that hence it is not necessary to increase in the morning, the rate of combustion in the furnace to secure a quick replenishment of the heat in the house; and

4th. That a considerable saving in the cost of house heating is secured. This discovery on my part entitles me to patent protection for the use of the method and its subsidiary acts when used for the purpose and as herein described. 7

Subject matter is disclosed in this case that will be claimed in separate applications.

WVhat I claim as new is:

1. The method herein described, which consists in, fillin with water, admixing with and coating the wet coked fuel with an uncoked fuel dust; and applying a blanketing coat of the admixedfuel to an ignited fuel-mass.

2. The method herein described, which consists in, blanketing and thus temporarily banking an ignited fuel-mass with a horizontally applied coating to the su-b stantially entire upper surface of an ignited fuel-mass of an admixture of moistened porous coked fuel and an ash free fuel dust.

3. The method herein described, which consists in temporarily blanketi ng a fuel mass in a state of ignition with a banking coat of moistened cinders having adhering ash free coal dust, said adherence being increased by the moisture in the cinders.

JOSEPH MOSES WARD KITCHEN.

a1r spaces in coked fuel' 

